According to Experts Club, France continues to enjoy one of the highest levels of positive perception among Ukrainians: in August 2026, 72.8% of respondents viewed the country positively, while only 3.7% viewed it negatively. Compared to March, the share of positive assessments has decreased slightly, but at the same time, the share of negative responses has also decreased, reports the Experts Club Information and Analytical Center.
According to the results of the August survey, 28% of Ukrainians view France entirely positively, and 44.8% view it mostly positively. 22.5% of respondents hold a neutral position. 3.5% view the country mostly negatively, only 0.2% view it entirely negatively, and another 1% were undecided.
The balance of positive and negative assessments stands at plus 69.1 percentage points. Thus, positive attitudes toward France outnumber negative ones by nearly 20 to 1. Based on this balance, the country remains among the leaders in the overall ranking of Ukraine’s trading partners.
Compared to the previous survey wave, the changes are relatively minor. In March 2026, 30.3% of respondents had a completely positive attitude toward France, and 44.3% had a mostly positive attitude—meaning the overall positive rating stood at 74.6%. At that time, 20.3% held a neutral position, while 4.7% of respondents expressed a negative attitude.
Thus, over the course of five months, the share of positive assessments decreased by 1.8 percentage points—from 74.6% to 72.8%—but the share of negative assessments also fell—from 4.7% to 3.7%. At the same time, the share of neutral responses increased by 2.2 percentage points—to 22.5%. The balance between positive and negative attitudes changed only slightly—from plus 69.9 to plus 69.1 percentage points.
The internal structure of positive responses is also revealing. The share of those who view France entirely positively decreased from 30.3% to 28%, while the share of mostly positive responses remained virtually unchanged—44.3% in March and 44.8% in August. This indicates that a stable, positive core of public opinion regarding France remains intact.
Oleksandr Pozniy, director of the research firm Active Group, previously attributed France’s high ratings to its established image among the Ukrainian public.
“For many Ukrainians, France is a symbol of support in difficult times, as well as a cultural and political reference point in Europe. These figures demonstrate a high level of trust and respect, which is largely explained by Paris’s active role in European policy toward Ukraine,” Pozniy noted.
According to him, when analyzing these results, it is important to consider more than just current emotional assessments: attitudes toward other countries are shaped by experiences of interaction, the informational context, and Ukrainians’ expectations regarding the future role of a partner country.
The latest wave of the survey shows that attitudes toward France remain consistently positive: a slight decrease in the overall share of favorable assessments is accompanied by a reduction in the negative segment and an increase in the share of neutral responses. In other words, there has been no noticeable shift from a positive to a negative perception.
The survey was conducted in August 2026 using self-administered online questionnaires in the SunFlowerSociology panel among 800 Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and older. In the previous survey wave in March, 800 respondents were also surveyed; the sample was representative by age, gender, and region, with a maximum theoretical margin of error of ±3.5 percentage points for indicators at the 50% confidence level.
ACTIVE GROUP, EUROPEAN UNION, EXPERTS CLUB, FRANCE, international relations, PUBLIC OPINION, SOCIOLOGY, UKRAINE
